The Green Bay Packers have announced that Mike Nolden of Belleville High School in Belleville, Wis., has been named the Packers High School Coach of the Week.
Nolden, in his fifth season as head coach of the Belleville Wildcats, has led his program to an unlikely run to the WIAA State Semifinals. After starting the season 0-4, the Wildcats finished the regular season strong to qualify for the playoffs as the 8th and final seed in their region. Belleville has gone on to knock off the No. 1, 2 and 5 seeded teams in their region and now sits one win away from playing for a Division 6 state title. As the Wildcats look to keep their magical run going, they will lean on the thing that brought them to this point: belief.
"Once we got to the playoffs, I just told them to believe in themselves; you don't have to believe in everything I'm saying but just believe in yourselves," said Nolden. "Give the coaches, your teammates and the community everything you got. When I played sports at Belleville, we didn't win a ton of games, and I want to give these kids an experience that I never had. We want a program that people can be happy with. We're one big family, and I hope that seasons like this, our kids can look back on and say, 'Hey, I'm appreciative of all the hard work I put in, and it's helped lead me to be the person I am today.' We've just really built our culture on belief."
Coach Nolden also makes sure his program is active in the community and helping anywhere they can.
"We are always ready, and we make sure the kids are ready [to help]," he said. "Every year we help volunteer at our community picnic, our car show and our fall festival here in Belleville. We also get our high school kids involved with the youth program. We want to be an extension of the community where we can be a helping hand at any possible time."
Nolden grew up in Belleville and graduated from Belleville High School in 2011. He played wide receiver and defensive end for the Wildcats and went on to play wide receiver at Upper Iowa University before transferring to Beloit College. He wrapped up a successful football career upon graduating in 2016. Nolden began coaching football as an assistant at his alma mater in 2017 before accepting the head coaching position in 2020.
Coach Nolden is honored to win the Coach of the Week award but recognizes it's much bigger than just himself.
"To be from a really small town, it boosts your whole town's confidence when someone is recognized in this way," Nolden said. "I might be the name behind the award, but it's an entire community thing. That's what our team is doing right now, just giving a lot of hope to a really small community. I'm just trying to soak all of that in, and I couldn't be more thankful for the award and what comes with it."
Nolden and his staff oversee a program of 49 players with about 30 of them suiting up for varsity games. His assistants include Tony Schmit, Anthony Nolden, Jake Biesterveld, Tanner Wallom, Dylan Posthuma and Jeff Pier. In addition to coaching, Nolden builds homes as part a of his family's business, Nolden Construction, based in Belleville. Coach Nolden is married to his wife, Kendall.
About the Green Bay Packers High School Coach of the Week Program:
The Packers will recognize one outstanding high school coach as their 'Coach of the Week' winner during the 2024 high school football season. Winners are awarded several items and privileges, including a $1,000 donation to the school's football program from the Green Bay Packers and the NFL Foundation, as well as recognition of the award on packers.com, wissports.net and wifca.org.
Nominations for Coach of the Week should be submitted by 10 a.m. every Monday to Jake Krueger, Football Outreach Coordinator, at coachoftheweek@packers.com. Please include the nominee's name, address, school, phone number and reason he/she is deserving of the award.
